New Delhi, May 3 :    New Delhi, May 3:  Members of Bengal's National Volunteer Force are neither entitled to permanent posts nor are they eligible to get payments and benefits at par with policemen, the Supreme Court has said. Putting at rest a 33-year-old dispute, a bench of Justices S. Rajendra Babu, K.G. Balakrishnan and P. Venkatarama Reddy said the members of the force could not be treated equally with constables of the police force. The 'volunteers' force' was created by the state government to meet emergent situations and their services were commanded as and when required, the judges pointed out. Though they were covered under the West Bengal National Voluntary Force Act and treated as 'public servants', there is no question of their's being a permanent force, the bench said. 'Merely because the members of the force have to be treated as public servants and their duties are to be regulated by some prescribed code of conduct, it cannot be said that they will have to be treated as constables of the police force,' Justice Balakrishnan said, writing the judgment. The apex court also set aside a Calcutta High Court decision giving the volunteers' force personnel the status of state government employees. 'The direction of the division bench (of the high court) to give status (to the force) and other benefits as employees of the state government was not legal,' the apex court said in its decision. 'It is also not correct to say that the members of the West Bengal National Volunteer Force are entitled to get permanency. As per the provisions of the Act, the members of the force can continue up to the age of 60 years, provided their services are required by the authorities,' the judges said. 'For the protection of the boundaries of the border districts and also to give training to some citizens in the use of fire arms so that their services could be used during an emergency, a National Volunteer Force was constituted in West Bengal. For that purpose, the West Bengal National Volunteer Act was enacted in 1949,' the judges pointed out. Section 4 of the Act says that a volunteer, when called upon for duty, shall discharge functions in relation to the protection of persons, the security of property and preservation of peace in any area within West Bengal and other functions as may be assigned. Every volunteer has to undergo a preliminary and periodical training. However, the volunteers sought parity with the police and demanded that they be treated as government employees when the state issued a notification in 1969. The notification said that no volunteer should be deployed for more than three months and if their services were required for a longer period, a fresh batch should be deployed. The notification was challenged in the high court and was subsequently quashed.